Pumpkin Cranberry Cookies

Here's a tasty fall cookie I was baking up around this time last year. 
Up next, pumpkin spice cookies with caramel frosting and candy corn cookies!

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These cookies are so moist and delicious! With pumpkin, spices and cranberries, they are the perfect fall treat. 

A pillowy pumpkin cookie is loaded with tart cranberries, fresh orange zest and spiced with plenty of cinnamon and nutmeg. It's all in there and it's all so scrumptious! All the flavors really go well together. Don't change a thing! And please, please use FRESH cranberries! The fresh cranberries give these cookies a nice tang that balances out the other flavors. The cranberries also give the cookies a pretty jeweled look. Dried cranberries just wouldn't be the same.


I dipped the tops of the cookies in a powdered sugar cinnamon glaze. The glaze took this from a tasty pumpkin cookie and turned it into a decadent treat!


Try them, you'll love them!

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Cranberry Pumpkin Cookies

INGREDIENTS:


1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup solid pack pumpkin puree
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh cranberries
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon*
1 tablespoon orange zest
1/2 cup chopped walnuts**


DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla, egg and pumpkin. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; stir into mixture until well blended. Cut the cranberries in half and stir into mixture along with the orange zest and walnuts. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.


* I always up the spices and add a pinch more cinnamon, freshly grated nutmeg, ground ginger and a pinch of cloves.

** You can add whatever nut you like. I left them out, but I 'm sure the cookies would be really good with them. Toasted pecans would be tasty too. 


*** I roughly chopped the cranberries in a food processor along with the orange zest and some of the sugar.

For the cinnamon glaze, I whisked together sifted powdered sugar, milk, cinnamon and nutmeg. You want the glaze to be thick so it will stick to the cookies and not run off too much.

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The making of the pumpkin cookies...

Fresh cranberries take a whirl with grated orange zest and sugar.

This creates a lovely shade of red

Then the cranberries get stirred into the spiced pumpkin cookie batter. Oh man! This mixture smells heavenly.

On some of the cookie dough I sprinkled corse sanding sugar for a little crunch and sparkle.

The cookies bake up nice and fluffy.

And then you can enjoy them plain or dip them into a glaze. Either way, they're scrumptious!